Sunday, June 17, 2012

A day at the Solstice Parade

One of my favorite things about summer in Seattle is Seafair. It's like a stretched out Mardi Gras with more variety. This year the kids and I went with friends to the Fremont Solstice Parade, a not completely family friendly affair (as opposed to the Wallingford Kiddie Parade, which we went to last year, and Moira plans to march in this year), but it's colorful and fun and best of all for Moira, light on the marching bands.
I was very proud of this. This rolly bag contains lunch for me and Moira, snacks to share with friends, a change of clothes for both kids, diapers and supplies for that, water bottles, a blanket to sit on, hats and sunscreen in case of sun, raincoats in case of rain, and a spare batter and CF card for my camera. My wallet and phone are in my pocket belt (pictured below), and the camera was on my shoulder. The purse next to it is my friend's. I wanted to be able to potentially take this and both kids home without help if Moira wasn't having a good time.
Davis gets cranky if he has to spend all day in the carrier, but I knew fitting the stroller on the bus wasn't going to happen.
Walker was going to the Washington Brewers Festival, across the lake, but we all needed the same bus at the beginning.
Turns out everyone else in the city was trying to get to Fremont from the University District too. We took a break from watching our bus pass by completely full to enjoy lunch at the U District Farmer's Market. Davis enjoyed his lunch of grass seeds, although he was a little confused why it was stuck to the ground.
We finally found the stop that was creating all the full buses and managed to wedge ourselves in. Seats were even offered to Moira and I. It's really hard that shows how full the bus was with my lens.
Finally at the parade! And it started late, so we didn't miss too much of it. We decide crossing the street through the parade to get to our friends is a bad idea, and I ask some people standing in the bed of a truck if my daughter can join them. Good news! It's not their truck, so we are all welcome to join them.
Lots of people are sitting in interesting places so they can get a view of the parade. No one cares.
We missed the naked bicyclists that the parade is famous for (Teacher Tom's hugging superheroes were walking out of sight as we walked up), but many of them were wandering around still, most but not all, now clothed. It's fun to see the body paint sticking out from clothes.
I took a lot of pictures of the parade. You can click through to my Flickr stream to see all of them. This is the point at which Sika offered me her zoom lens, since she brought a dead battery. What a difference.
Both kids are confused why I'm taking pictures instead of watching the parade.
Davis is cranky about being in the carrier now that he's awake. I decide that the bed of the truck isn't THAT dirty and let him explore. I am wrong, but manage to grab the dessicated apple core before he gets it.
This arrives. Moira agrees that it is pretty, but is still scared. Sika and I think this is a perfect time to try and cross to our friends, because the parade is getting backed up, but Moira freaks out because this means we have to walk towards the spider.
Given how many pictures I took of these Monarch Butterfly dancers, I guess they were my favorite part of the parade.
Davis likes his new seat on Pearl's chair, made from the foot stool pulled up so Sika and Moira can sit in front.
Since the naked bicyclists made body paint such an integral part of the celebrations, it's leaking into other parts of the parade. Naked AT-AT riders! (There was also a Darth Vader, but I only post pictures of my nipples on this blog :).)
I want to give a shout out to the interactive parts of the parade. There were huggers hugging, dragons chomping, and zombies shambling, but no one ever interacts with someone who doesn't want to.
And the parade is over. Everyone dance in the streets! And just in time because the last photo I took of the parade filled up my CF card. I popped in the spare, but it didn't work. A few minutes frantic deleting, some snacks, and time helping Kevin and Jim pack up, and we were off to enjoy the fair. Where I took two more pictures.
Of Moira doing collaborative art at the Fremont Abbey's booth. We looked around, had some more snacks, and then it started raining, so we all decided to head home. This time we got on the first bus that showed up, but it was still super full. Davis did his adorable giggle that means "Please give me milk!" for the pregnant lady sitting next to us. We told him he was a couple of months early.
It was dinner and bedtime when we got home, and both kids slept really well that night.